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The Crew Chief Who Would Be Kingmaker

Can Ray Evernham do for Dodge what he did for Jeff Gordon?

BOB ZELLER

Feb 1, 2001

It was Saturday morning at the Rock, just chilly enough on an October day to make the hot chocolate in Jeff Gordon's mug especially tasty, and just cozy enough at this small-town Winston Cup track in Rockingham, North Carolina, to make a session in the media center as relaxed as a fireside chat.

The 2000 Winston Cup season was winding down. Although Gordon had won three races, ultimately he would finish ninth in the Winston Cup championship, the worst since his rookie season in 1993, when he had been 14th. Gordon is a major star and still only 29, and he was nearing the end of his first full year without the magic hand of Ray Evernham, who had resigned in September 1999 to become a team owner and to lay the groundwork for Dodge's return to major-league stock-car racing in the 2001 season.

Gordon was asked to grade his season's performance. "I barely have a passing grade right now," he said, managing a laugh. But there was no frustration in his voice, and in truth, his life has been terrific since the split.

From Gordon's third season in 1995 to their break in 1999, Gordon and Evernham competed like a two-headed Tiger Woods, mowing down the opposition in a racing series that unashamedly manipulates technical rules to make every car as even as possible. During those five years, they won 45 of 154 races and three Winston Cup championships. They won so much that Gordon became, despite his pleasant nature and drop-dead-gorgeous wife, the most unpopular driver in NASCAR.

Then, in September '99, their partnership fell apart. During the race at Dover, Evernham was at his usual perch on the pit box. Five days later, as the team headed for Martinsville Speedway, he was gone. Evernham had taken an offer he couldn't refuse at Dodge, and Gordon refused to budge from Hendrick Motorsports. So that was that.

Last season, Gordon won less, just three times, but enjoyed life more. If he was not more popular, he was, to be sure, less unpopular. The boos subsided. In the absence of Evernham's controlling presence, and with the far-less-dominating Robbie Loomis as his crew chief, Gordon worked to reshape the team around his own will to win.

Gordon, assessing his former relationship with crew members, confessed, "There's guys -- I didn't even know their names. I know everybody's name now."

Granted, he's not winning as much. But even that has its benefits. He said, "There's no doubt you get a little complacent when you've won 13 races in a year. You get much more excited about it when you go to victory lane in a season like this one."

Gordon was more approachable than ever last season to reporters seeking impromptu interviews. He and his wife, Brooke, enjoy their status as a celebrity couple and love living in Florida, where they moved several years ago to escape the NASCAR fishbowl of North Carolina. "My life has probably been the best it's ever been this year," he said.

Evernham, too, has felt the lightness of a burden lifted, although more so than Gordon, he has jumped from that pressure cooker into another one. After leaving Hendrick Motorsports, Evernham spent the 2000 season on the sidelines building his new two-car Dodge team. "When you're Jeff Gordon's crew chief -- when you're Ray Evernham with the rainbow suit and the sunglasses -- that can lead you a little bit away from the reality of life," he said recently. "I was so focused on winning and so focused on my career as a crew chief, you start to have a tough time distinguishing what you are, really. Now I can be more myself, and I've been going through a lot of things that have made it a humbling experience."

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